Saturday, October 30, 2010

Tulsa Takes Care Of A Notre Dame Team In Mourning

It's been a really tough week for the Fighting Irish of Notre Dame. The tragic death of school photographer Declan Sullivan on Wednesday cast a pall over the Notre Dame football program and the entire university. The Golden Helmets were shined with a tribute sticker for Sullivan as the Irish took on the Golden Hurricane of Tulsa.

Early in the game Notre Dame quarterback DayneCrist injured his knee and is reportedly out for the season.

Then losing to Tulsa 28-27 added a surreal end.

"Obviously a very difficult loss for our football team."Notre Dame head coach Brian Kelly said. "Certain pales in comparison to the unimaginable sorrow we had this week in the loss of Declan Sullivan. As a father of three, I can only imagine the sorrow that accompanies the loss of your son. So it's been a very difficult time for me and everybody within our football family."

Meanwhile this was a huge win for Tulsa. It's been 14 years since the Golden Hurricane had defeated a BCS automatic qualifying school.

"Today was a big day for the University of Tulsa." Tulsa head coach Todd Graham said. "Really proud of our kids. Just came in as a team. The effort that went into putting together, I can't put into words how much this means to our program."

Here's the highlights and post game from South Bend. (Thanks NBC Sports)